
THE INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION TO 
THE BIBLE. 



A DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



SUSSEX COUNT! (N.J.) BIBLE SOCIETY, 



A T ITS A X X TJ A L MEET I X G IX X E W T X , 



June Slli, 186-1. 



HEY. JAMES C. MOFFAT, D. D., 



rnoFKSson ix pr.ixor.Tox seminary. 



PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



XEVv r YORK: 
PEIXTED BY C . A . ALVORD, 

15 YAXDEYYATEE STIJEET. 
1S0J. 



THE INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION TO 
THE BIBLE. 



A DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



SUSSEX COUNTY (N.J.) BIBLE SOCIETY, 



AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING- IN NEWTON. 



June 8th, 1864. 



BEV. JAMES C. MOFFAT, D. D., 



PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON SEMINARY. 



PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



NEW TOEK: 
PRINTED BY C. A. ALYOED, 

15 VANDEWATEE STEEET. 
1864. 



^54 



1»- 



IN EXCKAN8E ^ 

3AW ^ 1M1 



C. A. Altoed, Printer. 



<* 



DISCOURSE 



11 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." — Psalm cxix. 105. 

In the Holy Scriptures, counsels of infallible wisdom have 
been provided for every condition in the life of man. It is 
difficult, perhaps impossible, to estimate how much the world 
has been unconsciously benefited by the Bible. It is a lamp 
unto the feet of the righteous, but some of its light is also 
enjoyed by all who walk in his company. Its ways extend far 
over the path on which he treads. The counsels of Holy 
Scripture have been found as practically useful for the present 
life as they are safe in guiding to the life to come. 

That the Bible is the text-book of all the true religion that 
exists in the world, is a proposition which needs no defence in 
this place. It is already beyond all reasonable question. But 
vast as the ground, and inestimable as the interests which it 
covers, it is still far from covering all the indebtedness of the 
world to the Bible. 

The civilization of modern times, in its best and character- 
istic features, is also a gift from the same benign source. The 
Word of God has been a light to our path, without which the 
present age could not have stood where it does in the advance 
of refinement ; and, by the better use of which, higher attain- 
ments might have been made, and in following which, I feel 
assured that mankind is yet to enjoy a greater degree of pros- 
perity and happiness. 



4 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION 

Superiority, in this respect, might be predicated of an age in 
view of the wide diffusion of the elements of culture among 
the people, or of the polish attained by its privileged classes. 
The latter was the case of ancient heathen civilization ; the 
former that of the Hebrews in their best da}'s, and of the 
modern or Protestant world. 

The aim of civilization is to qualify man properly to meet 
the demands of his true relations to God. to his fellow-men, and 
to nature. And the elements which go to make it up are, 
accordingly, religion, government, and society, and the circle of 
the arts and sciences. 

In all ages, the world has been indebted for its best instruc- 
tion, more or less directly to revelation ; but since the rise of 
Protestantism, and the free publication of the Bible, that in- 
debtedness has been more fully declared and consistent. The 
highest civilization of the present time is the outgrowth of a 
free Gospel. And although men of the present day are neces- 
sarily the only judges in the case, yet so plain and conspicuous 
are the points of eminence, that there can be no chance of error 
in giving decision in favor of its great superiority. How far 
that is due to the infusion of the spirit of Christian doctrine is, 
I suppose, not fully apprehended by Christians themselves, and 
will, of course, be denied, in the main, by men of worldly 
mind. To present the subject in detail would demand the 
capacity of a volume. On the present occasion, I propose to 
indicate the fact merely by reference to the leading principle in 
each of the constituent elements. 

1. In the first place, I remark that the religion of the present 
civilized world, though various in form, is all, in its fundamen- 
tals, of Scriptural origin ; and that which belongs most properly 
to the time is entirely so. Protestantism, though not the re- 
ligion of the greatest number of modern nations, is, indispu- 
tably, that of the most completely civilized. And Protestant- 
ism answers the highest purposes of religion better than any 



TO THE BIBLE. 5 

other — because it brings its believer nearest to God. It ob- 
trudes no mythological veil, no idolatrous medium of canonized 
saint or sculptured stone, between the worshipper and God ; 
but brings him immediately into His presence, as a child to his 
father. It also gives the most elevating and worthy views of 
God. It presents in Jesus both a model of every virtue, and 
a sufficient Saviour, offering in him alone every thing to give 
the believer peace of conscience, and a sense of inexpressible 
dignity in union through him with God. It is at once purify- 
ing, elevating, refining, regulative of the affections, and liberal- 
izing of the whole man. As the religious element in civiliza- 
tion, it is the best for the purpose. And it is, of all religions, 
that which adheres most closely to the teachings of Scripture. 

Although both Greek and Eoman Christianity have their 
place within the pale of civilization, it is, beyond dispute, 
Protestant Christianity that takes the lead, and dictates the 
fashion of the present time. Germany, France, England, and 
North America are, beyond dispute, at the head of the move- 
ment — all, except France, countries in which the Protestant 
principle has taken the deepest root : and France is the most 
Protestant of all Romish countries, and would have been 
thoroughly Protestant in life and profession but for the enor- 
mities of bad government. 

To religion belongs also education, which, in modern times, 
has been carried to a degree of excellence, beyond what is re- 
corded of it in any previous period of the world's history. 

It is marked by great care in elementary training. In this 
respect, perhaps, not superior to that of noble families in 
classical times ; but now it is thrown open to all, without dis- 
tinction of wealth or rank, furnished gratuitously, and, in its 
best estate, having a higher end in view than heathen education 
ever had. 

In the Sabbath School, now so extensively ramified, and 
comprehensive of all classes, the modern world enjoys a means 



6 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODEKN CIVILIZATION 

for good, which, is more directly civilizing than any other 
work which education has ever before undertaken. It goes to 
beautify, both morally and materially, confers the most attractive 
charm upon the homes of Christian comfort and affluence, and 
goes with its benign mission into the humblest abodes of the 
poor. 

And when we look to the more advanced part of a liberal 
education, we find it carried to a length in pursuit of the most 
valuable objects of knowledge, which was never practicable 
until after the Eeformation, as well as to branches of science 
which have grown up since that time. 

Thus, education, both improved and made more common, 
has lifted up the general intelligence and tone of society — 
effects distinctly due to the Bible, freely published, with its 
wealth of instruction, its precepts inculcating the duty of 
acquiring knowledge, and its beautiful literature, quickening 
the mind therefor. And, in this connection, it may be well 
to repeat, what has often been remarked by others, that 
the Bible, notwithstanding the hostility it encounters, is more 
largely published, more extensively and thoughtfully read and 
commented on, more frequently and popularly explained, and 
more practically addressed to the lives and consciences of men, 
than any other book. 

2. The sciences are the results of man's inquiries, the classi- 
fied sum of his definite knowledge ; the arts, his application of 
that knowledge to effect his own ends. Both, in order to the 
execution of their proper work, must labor with a view to their 
own proper aims. Fine art must have beauty for its aim, and 
no other ; industrial art, convenience or comfort ; and science 
must have truth for its object, from which if it departs, it 
ceases to be science. But both truth and beauty are of God ; 
and success in the pursuit of both is best secured by a spirit 
in harmony with the Word of God ; for His Word is truth, and 
the Psalmist sings of Zion as the perfection of beauty, and 



TO THE BIBLE. 7 

of seeking Zion to behold the beauty of the Lord, as well as 
to inquire in His temple. 

Science has made greater progress since the Grospel obtained 
freedom, than ever before in all the history of the world ; and 
art has secured, if not truer beauty, certainly a vastly wider 
range of it ; and never before did either of them enter so deeply 
into the common life of man. 

The effect of natural and mechanical philosophy, and their 
offspring in industrial art, is to assert and establish the dominion 
of man over brute and inanimate nature. In this respect, the 
Protestant world is, beyond dispute, elevated on a higher throne 
of dominion than human society ever secured before. They 
are the Protestant — that is, the Bible-reading — nations, who 
take the lead in the control of nature, and of natural laws, for 
the use of man. The steam-engine, the steamboat, the rail- 
road, the electro-magnetic telegraph, gas-light, and hundreds of 
mechanical inventions, for the convenience and comfort of 
society, are the offspring of Protestant genius. The mind is 
quickened, enlightened, and directed to the apprehension of 
truth, and to its use for human well-being, by familiarity with 
the Bible ; and where the Bible is free, and popularly read, 
there man rises most effectively towards the position, originally 
designed for him, of dominion over the creatures. 

In that department of science which treats of man himself, in 
his spiritual and intellectual nature, whatever advance has been 
made beyond the attainments of earlier times is still more 
directly the fruit of Bible instruction. 

The arts, like the sciences, as already intimated, are of two 
classes : one pertaining to man's use of natural things for his 
comfort and convenience, and the other for the gratification of 
his taste. In the best development of society, the former must 
reach maturity first. Only of recent years has Protestant fine 
art begun to assume its distinctive features ; but already has it 
declared itself, as at once broader and more minute, more varied 



b INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION 

and jet truer to nature, and carrying its efforts into a greater 
number of fields than the art of any previous time. Never did 
art, with such docility, follow God in His works, as in that state 
of society which is most directly controlled by God through His 
"Word. It is the promise and beginning of a style of art 
greater than the world has previously seen. 

In that most influential of all the arts, namely, literature, the 
Bible itself holds the very highest place. Containing the most 
ancient of extant books, it reaches through all periods of the 
best of antiquity ; presenting in the most attractive forms, ever 
devised by human genius, the treasures of revelation. It brings 
the best moral results of ancient refinement, and pours them, 
through its own agency and the channels of modern literature, 
into the culture of the present day. It has always taken its 
place in the languages of the purest existing civilization. 
When Hebrew occupied that position, the Scriptures were 
written in Hebrew ; when that honor passed over to the 
Greek, the Scriptures assumed the language of the Greek ; 
when the Koman governed the civilized world, they took up 
the authoritative speech of Rome ; and when the modern 
languages of Europe rose to the dignity of literature, among 
their earliest books were translations of the Bible. It has also 
been the means of introducing letters into many barbarous 
nations, and thereby of greatly improving their condition. The 
British and Foreign Bible Society, within the first fifty years of 
its existence, printed and published the Scriptures in one hun- 
dred^and fifty different languages, some of which had never been 
reduced to writing before ; and "thus," in the words of one of the 
historians of that institution, ■■ the minds of multitudes have 
become enlightened and elevated, filled with correct ideas of the 
earth and time, of good and evil, of God and eternity. They have 
risen to the true dignity of their rational nature ; they have been 
fitted to take their proper station among the nations of the 
civilized world, as well as to inherit the kingdom of heaven." 



TO THE BIBLE. 9 

3. Under the head of society, I comprehend the principles, 
manners, and customs regarded by men in their intercourse 
with one another, and public opinion. In this sphere, although 
the erroneous and often iniquitous practices of heathenism 
have not entirely departed, yet, in those circles most character- 
istic of the present age, the principles of kindness and forbear- 
ance, and preferring one another in honor, are admitted as the 
marks of polished society. And the manners of such society 
are shaped accordingly. 

The modern lady and gentleman are kind and gentle in 
manner, carefully polished from every asperity which can hurt 
or offend the feelings of others ; and if also affectionate and 
warm-hearted, the more nearly do they approach to what 
modern society holds to be the perfection of that type. But 
these are features which are exhibited in their finest form in 
Jesus of Nazareth ; and in His teaching is the doctrine of good- 
will to men most distinctly held forth. 

The haughty, overbearing spirit, quick to take offence, and 
prone to give it, exacting of deference to itself, and thoughtless 
of what is due to others, belongs to an inferior style of culture — 
a lower grade of civilization : and that in exactly the degree in 
which it fails of conformity to the Gospel. One, whose cour- 
tesies are only superficial, is generally felt to be a cold, repulsive 
person, for the very reason that a hypocrite is such. One of 
imperfect polish, but in whom real kindness of heart appears, 
is more in conformity with the spirit of the best society. But 
the whole argument is summed up in the general admission 
that the utmost excellence of that kind is designated by the 
term — "a Christian gentleman." 

4. True civilization implies government by law, the protec- 
tion of the feeble against the strong, the suppression of violence 
and the dominion of equal law, whereby the life and property 
of the weak and of the strong are equally safe. Barbarism is 
the dominion of violence, the rule of the strong over the weak. 



10 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODEEN CIVILIZATION 

Wherever society admits the principle that a man's own arm is 
to be his defense, his individual strength the means of asserting 
his rights among his fellow-men, there the seeds of barbarism 
are already planted; and if carried out in practice, all that 
civil order, which modern times hold in most esteem, will soon 
disappear. 

The doctrine of modern civilization, on this point, is to leave 
vengeance to the law, and to look to the law for the protection 
of all its subjects alike. But just laws receive their authority, 
directly or indirectly, from God ; and only just laws can long 
sustain themselves in such a state of society. And thus we 
are brought to the Bible doctrine, that vengeance belongeth 
to the Lord, and that it is God who alone has the right to be 
reverenced and obeyed as sovereign in all the earth. 

The fundamental law has been expressed in the most cogent, 
as well as in its purest form, in the Gospel, where we are taught 
not to return evil for evil, but by all means to promote the 
government of love, which is the fulfilling of the law of God. 

Men are not competent to sustain absolutely any form of 
government — the freest are under moral constraints. A tyran- 
nic rule is one which pays no respect to the moral demands of 
the governed, and must suffer change or overthrow when those 
demands become clear and universal. A people, when free, 
will not maintain a government which, in any important re- 
spect, contradicts the popular judgment of truth and righteous- 
ness. Such an one may be set up by a party, but will certainly 
fall as soon as the moral character of the people has time for 
practical expression. 

In brief, every nation is controlled by an insistent, moral 
constraint, to seek that kind of government which shall corre- 
spond to the best they know of the will of God : and short of 
that they will never rest satisfied. Good government is vir- 
tually of God. 

Accordingly, in all Christian countries of the present day, 



TO THE BIBLE. r 11 

we find such changes irrepressibly taking place, as to bring 
their respective civil constitutions into conformity with the 
Christian knowledge existing in the public mind. The des- 
potic are being modified or removed, the limited monarchies 
further limited, and the liberal purified. 

That all this is a process due to the publication of Divine 
truth, is evinced, both directly and indirectly, not more by its 
self-demonstration than by the kind of opposition made to it. 
All corrupt systems have attempted to withhold from their sub- 
jects the use of the Bible, either by forbidding them to be in- 
structed in reading, or by excluding the book from their do- 
minions. But the power against which they contend is too 
strong for them. Already has it asserted its victory at the 
highest seats of authority, and is rapidly pushing its conquests 
onward over remaining opposition. Government, in the pres- 
ent civilized world, is satisfactory only in as far as it corre- 
sponds to what its subjects know of the principles of the 
Gospel. 

Another feature of the best modern culture is the progressive 
ripening of a well-regulated freedom. Ancient republicanism 
was the freedom of a few, and the bondage of the many. The 
canker-worm at the root of all the so-called free states of antiquity 
was the slavery in which the majority of their people were held. 
It was thereby that the ruin of every one of them, which has 
left a history, was effected. Oppression of the industrial classes 
degrades work. Work made disreputable, industry flags, and 
enterprise dies in embryo. Old routine, if let alone, may con- 
ceal the progress of decay for a time ; but the shock of inva- 
sion or of revolution, when it comes, can never be repaired. 
The national vitality is not strong enough to recover, and death 
supervenes. A Philip or a Caesar finds an easy victory when 
the mass of the people have no interest in defending the Con- 
stitution. It is the moral of both Eoman and Hellenic history # 
Modern freedom is very different. It contemplates a state of 



12 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION 

national existence, in which all shall be born free and equal, 
and estimates man not as belonging to a class, but as a man, 
and according to his gifts and virtues. 

Although this doctrine has been most distinctly pronounced 
in the United States, the spirit of it enters, more or less, into 
all the civilization of modern times, and deepest into that which 
is furthest advanced. It appears, in the progress, slow, but 
onward, of the British constitution, in the effects which have 
been secured from the revolutions in France, in the liberation 
of Eussian serfs, and in the general diffusion of republican doc- 
trines and sentiment throughout Europe. 

Now, this is a progress which has followed the march of the 
Gospel, and of the Gospel alone. And it flourishes best where 
the Gospel is most commonly read and most popularly acted 
on. It springs from the doctrine and practice of the Saviour, 
whose teaching, as the truth of God, alone qualifies men to be 
free indeed. 

When the Son of God left His throne on high, it was not to 
assume the splendors of a throne upon earth. He went down 
at once to the condition of the lowliest, and chose His birth 
among the humblest poor. For thirty years He lived obscurely 
among the poor ; and to the poor, in an eminent degree, were 
all His ministerial labors addressed. It was a peculiar glory of 
His Gospel that it was preached to the poor ; and His miracu- 
lous power was extended, most frequently, to heal the ailments 
and supply the wants of the poor. From birth to death, He 
labored to lift up the poor, and to put them on a social level 
with each other, and with the wealthy among His followers. 
And, in all succeeding time, the effect of true Christianity upon 
society has been to liberate and equalize. Beneath its genial 
rays, the slavery which belonged to the Eoman system of in- 
dustry gradually melted away. With subsequent corruptions, 
new forms of slavery crept in. But again, since the Reforma- 
tion, the Gospel, by its own agency once more set free, is 



TO THE BIBLE. 13 

going on to dissolve the effects of that return to heathen 
degradation. 

The oppressors of the poor — those especially who would 
hold them in perpetual bondage — are distinctly the opponents 
of the Gospel, and, to all that extent, contradict the teaching 
of Christ and the labor of His life. Christ taught to elevate the 
poor ; they would crush the poor into hopeless degradation. 
Christ teaches the means of making all His followers equal, as 
brethren, in Him. These men determine that nothing shall 
make them equal. Christ would remove the gulf between the 
rich and the poor, and render them mutually helpful, in fra- 
ternal affection, to one another. But these men contradict Him, 
and say : " Nay, widen the space between the rich and the 
poor. Put the poor into a different grade of mankind. Deny 
them every right that man can take from his fellow-man. 
Deny that they are men — that they are human beings. Eeduce 
them, as far as they can be reduced, to the condition of brutes, 
and use them as such." 

There can be no flatter contradiction of Christ's spirit towards 
men, of His doctrine touching their relations to one another, and 
of the deportment of His life among them, than the practice of 
slavery, and, accordingly, nothing can be more inconsistent 
with the interests of civilization. 

The Grospel is the enemy of all slavery, alike in conscience 
and in life ; and slavery is its enemy. In the conflict between 
them, especially for the last three hundred years, the Gospel 
has been progressively gaining the advantage, and has accumu- 
lated its victories until the present day, when its march is of 
unprecedented rapidity. Slavery, on the other hand, is as 
rapidly passing away. It no longer exists in Germany, in 
France, or in England, or their colonies. It has been recently 
abolished throughout the empire of Eussia. Among the 
secondary powers of Christian Europe, Spain alone retains it, 
not within her own borders, but in some of her dependencies. 



14 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODEKN CIVILIZATION 

It lias been abolished in the most prosperous and populous 
States of this country. In the whole breadth of Christendom 
it retains no important foothold, save in Brazil, some dependen- 
cies of Spain, and in the Southern States of the North American 
Union. In Brazil, measures are being devised for its re- 
moval, and in this country it is falling to pieces from the reck- 
lessness of its own iniquity. Slavery, like a mass of rock de- 
tached from the brow of a mountain, is tumbling headlong ; 
and as it rolls downward with accelerating velocity, descends 
most rapidly just before it is to be shattered to fragments at the 
bottom. 

Greatly to be pitied are good men who from constraint or 
prejudice have joined the defenders of slavery. They toil and 
suffer in a barbarous and disreputable cause, and one which is 
doomed to be more disreputable still. However it may be 
judged by local estimates, the losing side is theirs. 

The onward progress of the Gospel must eventually sweep all 
their defenses away. Temporary success has been conceded to 
them, and we do not know that the long-suffering of God with 
their cause is yet exhausted ; but that they will fail ignomin- 
iously in the end, is as certain as that the kingdom of Messiah 
will triumph gloriously. The whole voice of the civilization 
of the time repudiates their cause. For our civilization, as far 
as it differs from the ancient, springs out of the teaching of 
Christ, with many defects it is true, and failing to recognize its 
own origin ; but yet, in all its peculiar excellences, indebted to 
the advancing Kingdom of Heaven, as the morning twilight is 
indebted to the sun. 

In view of the progress of our civilization, and in determin- 
ing what it shall further be, it is not for us to go back to any 
example of heathen date, or even of such as flourished under 
the Mosaic, or any other ancient dispensation of God's grace : 
for those belong to the past. Our civilization, notwithstanding 
the blemishes still clinging to it, is, as to all that is peculiar in 






TO THE BIBLE. 15 

it, that which, springs from a free Gospel ; and our source of 
instruction, for its further development in propriety and purity, 
is not so much the example of Greece, nor the legislation of 
Kome, although both are useful, as the Gospel of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. 

These points, otherwise demonstrable, are confirmed by the 
indisputable fact that the increase and improvement of the 
elements of human culture have been greatly advanced since 
the establishment of societies for the publication of the Scrip- 
tures, and especially within the last sixty years, — the period 
which has elapsed since the beginning of that most important 
of all efforts of the kind — the British and Foreign Bible 
Society. 

I remark in closing that — 

1. Eeformers of social and political evils greatly err when, 
as they sometimes do, upon finding the Bible apparently in 
their way, they cast it off, and attempt to make their way with- 
out it. They greatly err. Because the Gospel, being the root 
of the matter, no change, contradictory of the Gospel, can be 
vitally incorporated with genuine improvement. And if the 
change proposed is really a reform, it will be found in accord- 
ance with the Gospel, and a great advantage is lost by rejecting 
its support. The Gospel is the proper test of every proposed 
change, as to whether it is a reform which will harmonize with 
the progress of modern civilization. 

2. The highest refinement of our time is not limited to per- 
sons of wealth or aristocratic birth, but is equally accessible to 
all. It is of a nature to be universal. The poor man who 
diligently studies the Bible, and seeks conformity to its pre- 
cepts, and the example of Christ, is farther advanced in the 
best culture of the time than the wealthy or noble -born who 
neglect it. 

3. Another benign effect to the same end is that which con- 
sists in harmony of purpose and union of Christian feeling. 



16 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION, ETC. 

When the British and Foreign Bible Society was formed, min- 
isters of the Church of England, Dissenters, and foreign Chris- 
tians, for the first time, met in harmonious co-operation for 
effecting one common religious purpose. And since then, 
Christians of almost every name, not excepting Creeks, Koman- 
ists, and Orientals, occasionally have taken part in its councils 
and labors. Men who could unite in no other religious enter- 
prise have been united in the bonds of a common interest in 
the Word of God. And having thereby discovered their affin- 
ity in Christ, they retain each other's respect and love. Eoman- 
ists, in turning against that cause, have thereby denied them- 
selves to the broadest platform of Christian fellowship. Docile 
pupils of the Bible, whenever they come to a mutual under- 
standing, are brethren. The cause of true and lasting union 
is also the cause of Divine truth ; and its triumph will be 
most complete when the earth is full of the knowledge of the 
Lord. 

4. And, finally, whether it is our purpose to send civiliza- 
tion where it is not, or to improve it where it is, the best and 
only effectual means is the publication of the Bible, and the 
inculcation of its doctrines into human life. The most effective 
agency for the culture of human nature in this life is that which 
goes to prepare it for the life to come. 



in,! ny.^L^^O^RES^^ i 



021 898 629 8 




